Friday, December 05, 2008

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, when they called it the World Wide Web, they weren't joking.

I guess my blog has been around long enough and has touched on enough subjects that I get random visitors from all over the world. Granted, most of them are looking for info on Arwa Damon, but hey...I'll take what I can get.

Here's a sampling of some of the countries of origin that have visited me (in blog form) in the last few days:Canada (Duh...Both Katrocket and Dale are regular Canadian visitors, and moreover genuine blogfriends. Still, it's international...so it counts.)The United Kingdom (They speak English, so not much of a surprise there, either.)CyprusThe United Arab Emirates (Dubai specifically)AustraliaJapanNorwayLebanonSwedenSpainThe NetherlandsIrelandIndiaGermanyChina (Apparently I'm Great Firewall-approved)New ZealandQatarNigeria

Via Andrew Sullivan, I came across this lucid post on why the Cinemark boycott is a bad idea. A little backstory: Cinemark's CEO donated the maximum amount (10 grand) to the Prop 8 campaign in California. When Prop 8 passed, activists in the GLBT community organized a boycott of Cinemark theaters to protest.

(Disclaimer: Cinemark Theaters is one of my company's biggest partners.)

While I don't doubt the good intentions of the boycott, it seemed to me that it was a little silly. Jennifer Vanasco explains why so I don't have to:

A boycott is bad when a company is being targeted because of the personal donations of someone in the company — especially when the company itself is pro-gay or gay neutral, as Cinemark is (it has high ranking, open gays in its leadership, it supports LGBT film festivals, it's running Milk).

To use a war analogy, the activists think they're sending a guided missile to an enemy encampment, but what they're really doing is carpet-bombing the entire valley, civilians be damned.

Yesterday, this plant was sitting on the counter at work with a sign that said "Free to a good home."And I thought, what a coincidence. The free plant finds a guy with a good home. I guess the universe isn't as hostile, conspiring for the destruction of all things, as I think it is. At least, not all the time.

Not sure I'd actually wear it, but I love the idea. They got the cyclops from Krull on there! Bonus points for Rocky from Mask and Jerry from Enemy Mine. (I'd say the same about Sloth from The Goonies, but Sloth already has a place in the pop culture landscape. When have you ever seen a reference to Krull?!)I love Enemy Mine. Whenever little Zammis calls Dennis Quaid "Uncle" a tear comes to my eye. That's what my nephew calls me. Not Uncle James, not James.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

I've read about Coheed and Cambria in my guitar magazines, but never really got into them. But I do like this song. There's some very good riffage and there's something interesting about Claudio Sanchez's slightly emo vocals.

With stories of corporate executives flying to Washington in private jets to beg for public money, even as they cash their million-dollar paychecks, it's easy to forget that there are honest-to-god decent businesspeople in the world.

Even though employees at the Peer Bearing Co. no longer work for the Spungen family that recently sold the Waukegan-based ball bearings maker, they still received a turkey each this Thanksgiving in keeping with tradition.

But even better was the gift that came in mid-September, when the Spungens threw a party to celebrate the company's acquisition by a Swedish company.

They gave away $6.6 million in year-end bonuses to Peer's 230 employees, decided by a formula based on each worker's years of service.

Yes, $6.6 million dollars given to 230 employees. Not $6.6 million given to one man.

Check out this guy's story:

On the day the checks were distributed, Valentin Dima watched as co-workers broke down in tears over their bonus checks. He drove home first, then opened his envelope: $33,000. His wife received a check for a smaller amount, and the two Romanian immigrants have since taken a Caribbean cruise to celebrate.

That's amazing. America needs more companies like this.

The top-heavy corporate fraudsters? Not so much.

(I first heard about Peer Bearing from my brother, who flew out to Waukegan not too long ago for a training seminar. He came back thoroughly impressed with their business and the Spungen family in particular.)

Maybe I'm the dumb one...but it seems to me that if Plaxico Burress wasn't a millionaire out clubbing then he wouldn't need a gun. (A sad tragedy with high-paid athletes these days is that they are prime targets for lazy criminals. See, Darrent Williams, Sean Taylor.)

And if he didn't have a gun, he wouldn't have shot himself in the leg at a club.

I know, I know. If you wanna roll with the big dogs, you have to piss in the tall grass.